Daniel P. Diaz

“It is not the task of the state to create mankind’s happiness, nor is it the task of the state to create new men. It is not the task of the state to change the world into a paradise—nor can it do so. If it tries, it abandons its own boundaries and posits itself as something absolute. It behaves as if it were God, and, as the Revelation of John shows, this makes it the beast from the abyss, the power of the Antichrist.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future

“The father of this other view of political activity is Plato, who assumes that only one who himself knows and has experienced the good is capable of ruling well. All sovereignty must be service, i.e., a conscious act whereby one renounces the contemplative height that one has attained and the freedom that this height brings. The act of governing must be a voluntary return into the dark “cave” in which men live. It is only in this way that genuine governance comes about. Anything else is a mere scuffling with illusions in a realm of shadows—and that is in fact what most of political activity is. Plato detects the blindness of average politicians in their fight for power “as if that were a great good.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future

“The state is not itself the source of truth and morality. It cannot produce truth from its own self by means of an ideology based on people or race or class or some other entity. Nor can it produce truth via the majority. The state is not absolute.”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future

“Although politics does not bring about the kingdom of God, it must be concerned for the right kingdom of human beings, that is, it must create the preconditions for peace at home and abroad and for a rule of law that will permit everyone to “lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way” (1 Tim. 2:2).”
― Pope Benedict XVI, Values in a Time of Upheaval: Meeting the Challenges of the Future